Burundi: crisis looms as 2020 elections open up old divisions

Jan 27, 2019 14:45 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

About 30 international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) shut down their services in the East African state of Burundi in January, yet another sign of the deepening political crisis that began in 2015 and which has...

Self-driving cars: why we can't expect them to be 'moral'

Jan 27, 2019 14:44 pm UTC| Insights & Views Technology

Ever since companies began developing self-driving cars, people have asked how designers will address the moral question of who a self-driving car should kill if a fatal crash is unavoidable. Recent research suggests this...

Greta Thunberg at Davos: why Gen Z has real power to influence business on climate change

Jan 27, 2019 14:44 pm UTC| Insights & Views Business

The time for action is now this is the mantra being taken up by Generation Z across the world. Already this year, thousands of high school students across the world have skipped school to protest their governments...

What Trump and Pelosi can learn from a different kind of shutdown that crippled the nation

Jan 27, 2019 14:43 pm UTC| Insights & Views Politics

Two sides of a dispute are at an impasse. Both refuse to negotiate until the other side gives in to their central demand, with no reason to compromise. Animosity between the parties deepens as they hurl personal...

Periodic table: new version warns of elements that are endangered

Jan 27, 2019 14:41 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science

It is amazing to think that everything around us is made up from just 90 building blocks the naturally occurring chemical elements. Dmitri Mendeleev put the 63 of these known at the time into order and published his first...

Brexit impasse: where have all the political leaders gone?

Jan 27, 2019 14:41 pm UTC| Insights & Views

Adrift, rudderless, confused, chaotic. A mess. How else can anyone honestly describe the state of British politics? The UK is, if truth be known, currently a nation that resembles little more than a vast community of...

Why Chinese science seems so secretive – and how it may be about to change

Jan 27, 2019 14:41 pm UTC| Insights & Views Science

Chinas recent scientific achievements including its embryo gene-editing research and historic moon landing appear to be surrounded by secrecy. The global scientific community first learned about its experiments modifying...